Trois Kilometre
by Momosportif
Summary: Dedicated to everyone who participated in Sarahfreak and I's DGM writing contest! The search for Tiedoll's mission log is fruitless but his three disciples don't come away empty-handed. No pairings, unless you're Kuro. Character's are Hoshino's! Enjoy!


**TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED IN SARAHFREAK AND OUR DGM CONTEST:** This one's for you guys! :) All of you brought something special and essential to the contest and I doubt that it would have worked without you all. :) I just wanted to write a little something for all of you (if you're interested of course) to show my appreciation. :)

This is something along the lines of what I would have written had I been a participant. (H says she gives me a 4.5 on creativity in concern to prompt -sobs- She's so harsh! XD)

A thousand thank yous. I cannot repeat that enough. XD

I hope you enjoy!

-bows-

* * *

"Do you think it's locked?"

"Che! I very much doubt it! He's so careless…"

"Geez… I feel like we should knock… this feels so criminal."

"It's not like he'll know, baka! And it's not like he'd even care if he did know."

"Yeah, but still, I-" the door hit the wall with a thunk and whatever words had been on their way out to finish the statement turned right around and crawled back down Daisya's throat.

He cast his olive eyes down, uncharacteristically uncomfortable.

Kanda stood on the threshold, hands on hips, peering in with only the slightest edge of apprehension before following his wandering gaze into the room. "No time to waste, especially since it will probably be a fruitless search anyways. He's so disorganized."

"Hm," agreed Marie, ducking a few centimeters in order to avoid the door frame. Only Daisya continued to hover outside Froi Tiedoll's bedroom as the lamp was found and lit and the unceremoniously arranged piles of stuff began to fall into a new but equally order-less series of stacks.

"Are you deaf, Daidai? We need to get going!" The familiar snapping tone was as effective in moving the hesitant exorcist as a half-hearted tap from its owner's sword would have been and it was not until his comrades both stopped their hurried excavating to stare at him, Kanda with irritated incomprehension and Marie with calm curiosity, that Daisya showed any sign of entering the room.

"What is it, Daisy-"

"It's nothing, Marie! It's just," he sighed as he slouched into the room, busying himself by gingerly leafing through some papers on the vanity just inside the door, "weird without him in here."

Satisfied with this explanation, Kanda resumed his searching but Marie remained erect a moment more, expression thoughtful.

"I mean, it's just kind of empty without the old man, you know? It's just another room… only with all his art crap," the nineteen year-old continued, more for his own sake than for that of his fellow intruders, "it makes me think about… you know, what if he's kicked it out there or-"

"Shut up and work, Daisya!" Kanda threw aside a sketchbook with more force than necessary.

Daisya turned slowly to see the scowling profile he knew he'd find and then returned to his own shuffling, raising his brows.

"I'm just saying, Kanda… he could be dead, we could be going out there to bring back a corpse instead of a general-"

"I said shut up! He's not dead!"

"Kanda, you've got to realize-"

"Daisya! Kanda! No more. We have a mission to complete."

Silence lingered in the air with clouds of dust as the three worked on: Kanda kicking through notebooks and papers on the ground, Marie emptying and restocking numerous bookshelves, and Daisya slowly clearing the vanity's contents to his lap.

Marie picked up his pace slightly. His chest felt tight in a way it never had before. He rubbed his sternum with one hand as he thumbed through book spines with the other. Daisya was right; it was odd to be in the general's room without the general himself and it was true. He could be-

Marie rubbed a bit harder. The sooner they were done searching the better.

"Oh!" Kanda's voice was soft with surprise. It sounded strange. "'Mission log'- This could be it, guys!"

Marie heard Daisya cross the room to kneel in the scattered sketchbooks with Kanda but he didn't even bother turning around. Instead, he let his eyes follow his thoughts to the window next to the bookcase, the murmurs of his fellows' rummaging lapping against his consciousness.

"Che! The dates are all out of order! He's so ridiculous!"

"We'll just flip through it… his last mission should be entered, right?" A gust of wind met Marie's defined features as he heaved the pane up and leaned out. It was a long way down.

* * *

"_Au clair de la lune, mon ami Pierrot, prête-moi ta plume pour écrire un mot…" The tune carried on in a hum as he creaked the door open ever so slightly, peering in to the dimly lit room to confirm his suspicions. "Ma chandelle est morte, je n'ai plus de feu. Ouvre-moi ta porte pour l'amour de Dieu… can I help you Marie?" _

_He jumped at being addressed and, for a moment, was frozen in panic but then decided that there was little to be lost by gong in if he was already discovered._

"_Good evening, Mister General Sir," Marie ventured into the sharp world of light and shadows created by a hearty candle burning steadily on Tiedoll's desk as the twenty-some year-old exorcist chuckled at his appellation before responding kindly, _

"_And a good evening to you too, Marie! What brings you out and about this fine night?" He turned from the desk and propped his elbows on his knees to be at his pupil's level. "By the way, you can call me Tiedoll. I don't mind."_

_ He smiled softly but got only a stiff and solemn bow in return. _

"_Yes, Mister Tiedoll Sir," he sighed in defeat, "I vas only passing by on the vay back from de batroom."_

"_Ah," the general nodded understandingly, "the bathroom… I see… Well," he clasped his hands, imitating his student's seriousness, "I suppose you need to be on your way then. I was just about to retire myself, Mister Marie Sir." _

_Tan cheeks grew ruddy at this reversal in naming and, under the weight of confusion and too little sleep, Marie's reserve crumbled,_ "_But I don't vant to be on my vay, Tiedoll sir!"_

"_Oof!"_

"_I don't vant to be here at all! I vant to go home!" Marie rubbed his head back and forth several times in the General's shirt, wiping away a sudden sprinkling of tears. "I miss my moter and fater… I vant to go home…" _

_Tiedoll hesitated only a second, desperately wracking his brains for any kind of remedy for this issue that he may have been told in his mentoring briefing from about a month before but eventually gave up at finding any solution there and trusted instead to his instincts._

"_I know, Marie," a gentle hoist brought the still stoically composed but teary-eyed child to his lap in a tight embrace, "I miss my family too sometimes… I'm just as new and uncomfortable and worried as you are, mon enfant." He relaxed his grip as Marie sat back, wiping his nose with a sleeve and glaring up in disbelief. _

"_And afraid?"_

"_Yes, I'm a little afraid too," smiled the general. "But I have a way, a secret way, to back sometimes… Do you want to know how?" _

_Marie, in his little solemn way, nodded vigorously, brief episode of sorrow abandoned in favor of his usual neutrality._

_ But it was a much cozier neutrality. _

_"Ah, excellent, Marie!" With the utmost care, Tiedoll shifted Marie to his hip and left arm, lifting the candle with his other hand and holding it a safe distance from his student in an unspoken request for him to blow it out. Marie obliged and a burst of breath sent them into blinking spasms in attempts to master the change in lighting. Once confident with his ability to see, Tiedoll rose and ventured over to the window by his bed, drawing the shade aside and forcing it open with considerable effort. A chair was procured for Marie to perch on and the duo greeted the cool night air side by side. "Do you know anything about constellations, Marie?"_

"_A little…"_

"_That's alright… I only know a little too… See that big star? Right there?"_

"_Hm."_

"_Do you know what it's called?"_

"_De Nort Star…"_

"_Very good, Marie! When did you learn about the North Star?"  
_

_"I… at home…"_

"_So did I! A looong time ago when I was about your age, in fact." _

"_Ah."_

"_When I came here I spent a lot of nights awake looking at the stars, the moon, the sky… I didn't think there would be anything here from home… but I came to realize that my North Star was still up there, just like it was when I was young, and not only that but many stars- all the shapes I remembered finding up there- and, of course, the moon," Tiedoll propped an elbow up on the sill, resting his head on his hand and looking down at his light-dusted student with a soft smile. Marie was glaring down into the dark abyss beneath the window thoughtfully._

"_So… my moter and fater… dey see de moon too? Dis moon?" _

"_That's right," both exorcists turned to the night sky and appreciated it in silence (save for the faint sound of the people leaving the Opera house that played in Marie's ears and the creek of crickets keeping time for the suggestion of an accordion tune that lingered in Tiedoll's, neither of which a third party would have or could have been privy to) until the general released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and brought them both back to the noiseless night at Headquarters. _

_"Ah. Well… It's rather late don't you think?" Tiedoll began to coax the pane down, voice low, almost a whisper. "Perhaps you should spend the night here, Mister Marie Sir, and not risk the walk to your room." The little beacons of Marie's eyes flickered as he blinked, still shaken by the abrupt awakening from his semi-slumber. "Just this one night, hm?"_

"_Y-yes! Yes, please!" Marie hurried to reply as the conversation caught up with him. "Tank you!" he clambered down the chair with his mentor's help and stood by awkwardly as Tiedoll replaced the chair and shuffled through this and that. _

"_The bed's right there, Marie." _

_He heard more than saw the smile from across the room. He felt it too._

"_Y-yes, sir…" Cautiously, Marie crawled onto the vast rumpled surface of Froi Tiedoll's bed and under the covers on the far side._

_ It smelled like acrylic paint and charcoal, like his teacher. _

"_Au clair de la lune, on n'y voit qu'un peu. On chercha la plume, on chercha du feu." _

_It was warm._

_ "En cherchant d'la sorte je ne sais ce qu'on trouva… What did you think of the view, Marie?" _

_The General paused unexpectedly in his song and rearranging, sitting up straight and looking at the lump he knew to be his student reflected in the mirror over his desk. It did not move but an answer came to him through the dark all the same._

"_It vas a long vay down."_

"_Ah…" the general returned to his task with a faint smile. "Mais je sais que la porte sur eux se ferma…"_

* * *

"Chikusho!"

"Figures…"

Marie reluctantly tore his eyes from the lofty scene presented by the open window just in time to see Daisya dejectedly tossing the mission log aside as he made his way back to his post at the desk.

"Chikusho… chikusho!" Kanda swore under his breath, dirtying the already sullied air as he searched on for some clue as to where their wayward master might be.

"Trust him to date it and everything but leave the rest blank… I thought we had it there for sure…"

"Che…"

Marie turned to look at the bookcase he had been scouring and then back to the window. Maybe if he looked hard enough he would see his stomach down there, so many meters away, where he felt it was.

Or perhaps it hadn't hit ground yet.

Daisya, ever unfocused, noted in the reflection before him that Marie had stopped.

He wondered idly if Kanda had noticed yet.

Where would they eat dinner.

Where would they spend the night.

How long was the trip going to take.

Would there be many Akuma.

Where _would_ they eat… The piles of papers on the desk were shrinking as the one in his lap grew and, at long last, he finally came to the dresser's modest wood top.

"Hey… hey! He-ey!" A grin slid across his face as quickly as the remaining piles slid to his lap with one sweep of his arm.

"What is it, Daisya? Did you find something?"

"Yeah…" Kanda's eyes widened in surprise as his addressee plopped his head down on the dresser with an affectionate sigh, "Yeah… I found something…"

Though Kanda and Daisya were more often at odds than they were at some level of understanding, neither had wasted their years of forced companionship and it was annoyingly dear to the swordsman that whatever the "something" was, it was not a something of importance to their mission. Begrudgingly, he resolved to let the football fanatic have his "moment" with the firm belief that he would return to work if allowed this time for emotional expression (however useless).

Daisya (wholly unaware of the great pains his more prickly peer was taking for his personal comfort) released another contented breath, rubbing a finger over a thin layer of dust and nostalgia.

"Good old General Geezer…"

* * *

"_Mon chapeau, il a quatre bosses. Quatre bosses a mon chapeau. S'il n'avait pas quatre bosses, ce n'serait pas-" _

"_Watcha doin' old man?" _

_Tiedoll turned to his doorway, void of any shock, fear, or surprise that Daisya had been hoping for (he had decided that the General had sold all his exciting emotions in order to obtain a surplus of fatherly sensitivity) and offered a smile before swiveling around again with irritating slowness and purpose. _

"_I'm just organizing some files, Daisya. What are you doing? As I recall, I left you with Marie and Kanda in the training hall with explicit instructions to practice together until…" his teacher's poofy-haired head bowed as he considered his watch, "about ten o'clock, and, if my clock here is accurate, it's only about nine…"_

"_Boring!" chanted Daisya, crossing his arms and leaning against the door frame. "Kanda doesn't play fair anyways and Marie spends the whole time being diplomalatic-"_

"_Diplomatic."_

"_Yeah, that…" The eleven year-old squinted suspiciously at the general's back._

_ Here was when the game got tricky. _

"_I'm sorry to hear that…" _

_Daisya tensed, waiting for the command to return to his training while his mind raced with ways to get out of it. Many people were under the false impression that General Tiedoll was a benign, benevolent creature. The uninformed masses did not know, as Daisya knew, that Tiedoll was in fact one of the most devious and malignant beings in the world, not to mention the Order. Yes, the innocent looking old man currently straining to stash something on top of his bookcase, the very picture of kind vulnerability was all but evil. _

_"Ah…" the general slowly came from the balls of his feet after his successful struggle against gravity and elevation. "Well, what else can one do, hm?"_

"_What're you talkin' about, old man?" Daisya demanded boldly, deciding to throw caution to the wind._

_ Tiedoll rounded on him, hands on hips, and said (as though it was the most obvious thing in the world),_ "_When people don't play fair or when they act diplomatic all the time! What __can__ one do?" He shook his head, countenance grim. "It's the same for me, Daisya… When I try to practice Cross __never__ plays fair and Cloud will not do a thing about it… Rien est juste, mon enfant…"_

"_What__?"_

"_And you know what I do when that happens? Just exactly what you're doing: I do something else," the general nodded seriously as his student looked on in total confusion, completely at a loss as to how he should react or where this sudden outburst had come from. "Well done, Daisya, well done…" _

U_nder his mentor's half-lidded, intense stare the potential aggressor staggered a few paces out into the hall, now the victim, but Daisya, ever the quick to recover, stood to his full height, made a small cough, and stated coolly, "I'll be on my way now…"_

_ His retreat was cut short by a chuckle that morphed into a hearty laugh and then a quiet plea embedded with smiles,_ "_S-stop, Daisya!" _

_He twirled about to find Tiedoll holding his sides, cheeks ruddy with humor. _

_"I was just joking with you, Daisya! I didn't intend to scare you! Come back and have a seat," the thirty-some year-old pulled out the chair at his desk. "Let's have a little chat, hm?" _

_Point in case. The man was pure evil. _

"_Hmf! Very funny, old man!" The Turk strutted to the proffered seat and sat, being sure to make his irritation evident with every movement before allowing the general to push the chair in. _

"_I'm sorry, Daisya."_

"_Yeah, yeah… Now what's this 'chat' business? It sounds more boring than boring." _

_The general hid his smile by turning away and resuming his organizing. _

"_It doesn't have to be boring… I just wanted to hear about how things are going… Do you like it here?" _

_Daisya, after checking to see that his teacher was sufficiently occupied, propped his chin on a palm and began fiddling with a pen he found on the makeshift desk._

_"Meh… it's alright, I guess… I like the food anyways."_

"_I see…Have you had any trouble navigating the building? It's a big place, isn't it?"_

"_I've seen bigger," Daisya replied flatly, attention lazily trained on the pen as he flipped it in between his fingers. "And I don't get lost."_

"_Ah! You're lucky, Daisya! I still get lost all the time!"_

_ If this fact impressed the young exorcist at all he made no sign of it._

"_That's great."_

"_Actually, it can be quite a problem sometimes, but you wouldn't know about that, hm?"_

"_Noooope…" The pen twisted in the air as it flew up and then back down, landing squarely in his hand each time._

"_Have you made any friends yet?" Tiedoll paused to be sure he heard the answer but Daisya was unaware of the importance of this particular inquiry._

"_Sort of… I like Marie," he clicked the pen, glaring at the little point that popped in and out, "I __hate__ Kanda and… oh!" a grin collected at the edge of his mouth and he went on fondly, "I like the scientists… they're funny."_

"_So they are," agreed the general in equally affectionate tones._ "_I'm glad that you-"_

"_Oh!" The word was loud but hollow, empty and dead so that it filled the whole room with echoing. The kind of word that no one can ignore regardless of his or her intentions._

"_What is it, Daisya?" The droopy, magnified eyes may as well have been a laser beam because when the innocence-wielder in training glanced up into them he felt as good as dead._

_ Sharp, untamable chestnut tufts flopped about with comic helplessness as Daiysa turned first to the desk, slapping his hand on the dresser, and then to his mentor again with his most potent poker face.  
_

_"It's nothing. Nothing at all."_

"_Did you write on my desk with that pen?"_

"_I- no! Of course not-"_

"_Lift up your hand then."_

"_I-"_

"_Come now, Daisya."_

"_It was an accident!" he blurted frantically, covering the little black marks he'd made with both hands now as if that would make them go away somehow. "I was distracted and the pen was in my hand and I-"_

"_Ah. I'm __so__ sorry, Daisya!" The francophone clapped a hand to his forehead, shaking his head. "I've gotten so forgetful these days!" _

_Every aperture on Daisya's sharply chiseled features was wide, waiting for judgment. _

_"Oh, Daisya, I know better than anybody that one can't sit around with things like pens nearby without a piece of paper in front of him." _

_The tension keeping the mini-exorcist erect escaped in a gust of breath and his spine curved with relief._

"_Yeah…"_

"_Hmm…" Tiedoll descended to Daisya's level, examining the stray pen lines with gravity. "The only question is what do we do now?" _

_ Student and teacher stared at each other for a few beats, the former curious and the latter thoughtful, before the general's perpetually half-closed eyes shut as he heaved himself up, "Well… As I see it, there's only one thing to be done now."_

"_What?" _

_Tiedoll picked his way through the boxes and piles of paraphernalia littering his floor to get to his unmade bed. For a moment, he disappeared, hidden behind the stacks of this and that as he rummaged for something underneath the sagging springs of his mattress, but emerged again before Daisya could get seriously worried, small box in hand, "You'll just have to color the whole thing for me, that's all." The box slid apart to reveal a rainbow times fifty of colors. "If you're up to it, that is… I can always do it myself of course-"_

"_I'll do it!" _

_The general beamed._

"_Excellent! I'll get you some paints too, in that case…" Tiedoll trundled off in search of some acrylics as Daisya eagerly ripped off pen caps and took to making massive scribbles with as many pens as he could hold in one hand. _

_He began to kick his legs in and out, hitting them hard against his chair with a satisfying, steady thunk. A soft clap joined his beat as aging eyes searched in vain for the recently sorted paint trays (somehow organization had always worked against Tiedoll). "Un kilometre à pied, ça use, ça use. Un kilometre à pied, ça use les souliers… Un, deux. Deux kilometres à pied, ça use, ça use. Deux kilometres à pied ça use les souliers. Un, deux, trios…"_

* * *

"Ah…"

Kanda's arm twitched violently in a way much more believable as a response to someone cursing him to hell and back than to the gentle sigh of affection that burst into the room from the desk and spread, thinning as the volume flurried down to cover the dust, and becoming almost nothing more than a silent exhale by the time it reached the kneeling Kanda.

He scooted further back, turning as he did so, and sat absolutely still far a few heartbeats watching a speck of dust held captive in the wash of sunlight as it floated in an almost-zigzag to the ground. The moment it closed the gap between air and floor, his sharp eyes shot up and bored into Daisya's back with all their steely fury.

He'd lost both of his fellow searchers now, it seemed, to what he knew not.

He cared not.

Kanda was (and always would be), more than happy to work alone. With a methodic calmness acquired through years of self-discipline, the temperamental exorcist returned to his task-

lift paper, examine paper, discard paper, lift paper, examine paper, discard paper, lift-

but something inside Kanda was fluttering apart too as he crouched amongst what he hoped were not the only remnants of his general (held captive in the wash of sunlight)-

examine, discard, lift, examine, discard, lift-

he was about to touch ground-

examinediscardliftexaminediscardliftexaminediscarddiscarddiscard-

"Chikusho!" whatever it was that had had the misfortune of coming to his hand last hit the bookcase opposite him with a resounding thunk, punctuating his exclamation of vexation with a force that left little to the imaginations of his startled companions in concern to it's meaning. For a brief moment anger dissolved into innocent confusion but by the time Daisya had raised his head and Marie had turned around, the eyes that met theirs had no remorse and only cold resolve.

Then, unpredicted by the uneasy Daisya or the concerned Marie, the beacons of all Kanda's pent up anger at the world shut as he calmly rose to perch upon the edge of Tiedoll's bed.

"There's nothing here is there…" the statement-question filled the room with all the stereotypical delicacy and grace attributed to his race. Marie sought the sinking spot of scarlet that was the setting sun and Daisya went back to not-looking at his reflection, neither able to pull a response from the painfully still air. "Is there…"

* * *

_It was so so so so so dark in the hallway and everywhere was scary-scary, real, true scary but back and forward were just as scary and he had jumped and circled so many times this trip that he was not so sure if back was really back and forward was really forward anymore so all he could do was run on and on in scary-scary, hoping all the time that forward was still- _

_flash!-_

_ around, around, around- _

_roarrrrr- _

_down. _

_He sat and made himself so so so so so small, small-small, real, true small and he screamed. Screamed to make the dark go away, to scare the scary, to make the flash-roar monster go home, away… away, away, away, a-  
_

_"Kanda?" he opened his eyes to light that wasn't there before. "Is that you?" _

_Kanda blinked up owlishly, not responding to the question because he was not sure if he knew the answer. _

_A person who could almost be Gensui if he had glasses and less poofy hair (though the fact that this stranger had poofier hair was an absolute shock, bordering unbelievable) was squinting down at him from a glowing doorway. Unable to do more than stare blankly up, Kanda did just that, stilled with surprise until- _

_flash!-_

_ "Oof!"–_

_roarrrr- _

_There was lots of kicking and flailing and much more screaming than either of those before Kanda was calm enough to register that the hand brushing his bangs back over and over again was rough like Gensui's. The arm keeping him up was holding loose-tight like Gensui's did. The lips that pressed against his forehead came with a prickle from a scruffy moustache that could only be Gensui's. _

_He pushed back enough to stare up into tired, droopy eyes he knew very well and, out of a lack of ability to speak that came partially from fear and partially from insecurity with a new language, he held his hands up in two small circles and put them over Tiedoll's eyes. _

_"Hmmm… Where are my glasses?" Kanda nodded at this interpretation of his wordless question. A tremor of laughter shook the slight frame where it pressed against the sturdy one. "Where are my glasses indeed! I can't say that I remember exactly… ah, here," his savior leaned over to pluck the quested-for item from a pile of papers on his bedside table and slid the spectacles into their proper place._

"_Gensui!"_

"_Yes, Kanda?" the General responded with a soft smile, allowing his student to slip from his lap in order to take a seat beside him (one much more befitting of his ten years of age)._

_ A small scowl ushered out slack confusion as Kanda took to studying his knees with irritation._

"_You are not the same now as in day time…" he muttered in explanation._

"_Very few things seem to be the same at night, hm?" Tiedoll gently ran a hand down his student's slouched back, something that he would not have dared nor Kanda accepted had either been more awake. The lamp flickered over their silence in a comforting way, as if to say it would be okay to put it out, that it had chased out all the dangers of the night and-_

_flash!- _

_"Kanda!"-_

_ So so so so so so-_

_ roarrrr-_

"_Ret me go! Ret me go, ret me go!" _

"_Kanda, Kanda, Kanda, shh! Shh." An escape to under the bed was prevented, though not without great struggle on the General's part. _

"_No!"_

"_Kanda…"_

"_No!" _

_Just as Tiedoll prepared to relocate his captive to his lap again, the lamp breathed its last and cast student and teacher into darkness. The slim wrist slid from Tiedoll's firm grasp. _

"_Kanda!"_

"_Hmf! I said to ret me go!" _

"_Ah, Kanda…" the older exorcist put his hands in his lap at this reprimand and exhaled quietly, "I'm sorry…"_

"_Fine."_

"_Is it okay?"_

"_I guess."_

"_Okay…"_

"_What are you doing!"_

"_Lying down, of course! It's night time," the mattress became a veritable sea, waving and quaking at every movement of its kraken inhabitant. "I was happily asleep before you woke me up."_

"_How rude! You are rude!"_

"_I'm just honest," protested the General. _

"_No!"_

"_Good night, Kanda."_

"_No!" Kanda, crouched over his horizontal mentor, dropped to his rear as the bed jostled to admit its denizen from its depths. _

"_Why not? Do you have something to tell me?" _

_For the first time the petite Asian faltered._

"…_Maybe…" _

"_Well, by all means, what is it?"_

"_I-" Tiedoll felt, and could faintly see, the newest exorcist under his charge folding his legs to his chest to assume his sulky stance, "No… nothing."_

"_Bon soir, mon enfant-"_

"_Mate!" A slim but strong hand halted his return to his pillow and he propped himself up on an elbow to face his student. "Matte…" Kanda's voice was surprisingly quiet. The fire of fury that normally resounded through it was gone and without that it was so (so so so so)… frightened?_

_ Before he could be resisted, Tiedoll swept the blankets over Kanda who, instead of struggling, fell to his side and scooted close to his teacher, but still what he apparently deemed to be far enough away. _

"_Qu'est-ce qu'il y a?"_

"_I… don't want it, Gensui."_

"_Don't want what?"_

"_The monster who makes bright and then purrs at us… I want him to go away, go home." _

"_Well where do you think he lives?"_

"_I do no thinking. I know where. He comes from my home. We have met before."_

"_Ah… and when was that?"_

"_He was there when my home went away into bricks. He ate my okasan and otousan."_

"… _Kanda, that was another monster, a secret and tricky monster who we're looking for now… he has lots of brothers everywhere… They made my home go away into bricks too, a long time ago."_

"_But-" slender legs brushed his knees, followed by an entire skinny being that could no longer resist the pull of gravity and warmth. Kanda let his head rest against the General's pounding chest and murmured with the quiet of confusion, "But what made the sounds and the bright then? Why was that there then and here now too? I don't want it…"  
_

_"Kanda, the noise and light are thunder and lightening. They're not really a monster. They're kind of… nice spirits in nature who come when it rains… they won't hurt you, I promise." Deciding that he best seize the moment, Tiedoll squeezed his usually untouchable pupil in the only hug he would be allowed for a long time and was rewarded with a soft hand sneaking up to rest on his side. _

_He quickly removed his glasses (before the fog gathering on them got any worse). _

"_So they are nice spirits?"_

"_Yes, they're very nice if you're kind to them. I think they're like artist too… lightning makes beautiful pictures in the sky…"_

"_Hm… I don't want art so much. You are enough-too much art, I think."_

"_Is that so? I never knew…" stout fingers tugged through fine, silky hair._

"_Yes. You are enough-too much. I think the spirits are hungry. They send a hand out to find food and there is none so their tummies roar." _

"_That could be so… Yes, I could definitely see that…"  
_

_"They are naughty as Daisya and do not eat at dinner when they are supposed to."_

"_Ha, ha! You should tell him that tomorrow!"_

"_I hope it makes him mad."_

"_Ah, mon petit oiseau, qu'est-ce que je vais faire avec toi? Tu ne voles pas assez et tu picotes trop… Qu'est-ce que je vais faire?"  
_

_"Sing me a song, Gensui. With your funny words…" _

_A moment of thought was swallowed by the night before a response came to offer more filling fare._

"_Dodo, l'enfant do. L'enfant dormira bien vite. Dodo, l'enfant do. L'enfant dormira bientôt…" _

"_You arways were Gensui, weren't you?"_

"_Tout le monde est sage dans le voisinage,"_

"_There was nothing bad in the dark arso, was there?"_

"_Il est l'heure d'aller dormir…"_

"_And there's nothing here arso, is there? There's nothing here, is there…"_

"_Le sommeil va bientôt venir…"_

* * *

Time has a way of eating people who tarry too far from its flow and it takes an unusual person to force their way out of its gut once swallowed. It is like waking up earlier than is pleasant or moving when a cat is asleep on your lap or leaving the shower in winter. One has to wonder what would have happened to Marie, Daisya, and Kanda if the door had not been left open.

Perhaps they would have remained lost with the stack of favorite acrylic paints and the precise, detailed itinerary for Froi Tiedoll's most recent journey (it was on the bedside table).

Perhaps Marie would have spoken them awake anyways.

"He's in Barcelona."

"Wha?"

"Nani?"

Marie, perpetual glare in place but slightly apologetic, turned from the window fully for the first time and repeated dutifully, "He's in Barcelona. Or he's on his way."

Daisya sat up, cheek red from pressing against the desk top, "How do you know, Marie?"

Kanda stood, hyper alert as if he could make up for falling completely into his thoughts for so long.

"It doesn't matter how he knows, it's the best lead we've got, baka." Three quick strides brought the swordsman to the door and an about face. He jerked his head, ponytail swaying in a surreal, slow way. "Let's go."

In an example of the behavior he desired, Kanda turned sharply and began resolutely marching down the hall.

Marie paced carefully to the door, pausing to glance back over the room and then at Daisya when he stood and cursed as the forgotten contents of his lap spilled out onto the floor.

"Yeah, I'll leave it…" the nineteen year-old replied distractedly to the unspoken advice of his elder.

Tripping over everything but the floor, Daisya finally reached the door with unexceptional grace and, waving out the lamp, cast a last look around the darkening chamber. "Hm," he gave a short sigh, brows knitting, before stepping out into the hall and shutting the door. "Hope we're doing the right thing, General… Oh and, uh, Bon soir," he made a little bow to the door before scurrying down the hall to a patiently waiting Marie and a sullen Kanda, falling into step with a whistle as they made their way to the docks below. "Un kilometre à pied, ça use, ça use. Un kilometre à pied, ça use les souliers. Un, deux…"

* * *

A brief translation of all the French:

Mon enfant - My child

SONG 1: Au clair de la Lune - In the Light of the Moon (if anyone wants the lyrics, just ask and I'll put them up...I feel to lazy to right at the moment)

SONG 2: Mon Chapeau - My Hat (My hat has four corners. Four corners has my hat. If it didn't have four corners-)

SONG 3: Un Kilometre - One Kilometer (One kilometer on foot, that uses, that uses, one kilometer on foot, that uses the shoes, one, two, two kilometers on foot, etc.) This is a song for walking or marching...it's a counting exercise. :D

SONG 4: Dodo, l'enfant, do - Sleep, child, sleep (again...I'm too lazy to translate this one cause it's longish...ask if you want the lyrics though)

Bon soir, mon enfant - Good night, my child.

Qu'est-ce qu'il y a? - What's wrong?

Tiedoll's statement to Kanda: Ah, my little bird, what am I going to do with you? You don't fly enough and you peck too much. What am I going to do?

Daisya's statement: Good night/evening.

Was that everything? :O I hope so...anyways, I had a lot of fun with this and please tell me if you catch any mistakes, etc. :) All the songs are supposed to have a figurative significance (I'll let you all ponder that)...

Yeah, so, um...I JUST found out that Marie's blind. That pretty much means everything I've ever written about him is WRONG, but please ignore that. XD

Oh, also, in respect to Marie, I was trying to write him with a German accent (he's Austrian) thus the lack of "th" diphthongs and "w"s. Yup...

Well...it was lovely to post something after so long and I hope you all enjoyed it! Be forewarned that it may take me a long time to reply to reviews, but I swear that I will, one day...XD

A thousand thank yous!

-bows-

-S


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